Fascinating study here claiming to show [in vivo] evidence that mitochondria in mammalian cells in a number of species are able to capture photonic energy and produce ATP when exposed to chlorophyll metabolites in the presence of light. All the more intriguing as both mitochondria and chloroplasts are thought to be endosymbiont components of living cells, once free living bacterial-like cells that were incorporated permanently into eukaryotic cells.

I would be very interested to know what people with stronger biochemical or cell biology knowledge than I make of this research. Paper is attached.

Xu, C., Zhang, J. Mihai, D.M. & Washington, I. (2016) Light-harvesting chlorophyll pigments enable mammalian mitochondria to capture photonic energy and produce ATP. Journal of Cell Science, 127, 388-399.

http://jcs.biologists.org/content/127/2/388

ABSTRACT

Sunlight is the most abundant energy source on this planet. However, the ability to convert sunlight into biological energy in the form of adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP) is thought to be limited to chlorophyll-containing chloroplasts in photosynthetic organisms. Here we show that mammalian mitochondria can also capture light and synthesize ATP when mixed with a light-capturing metabolite of chlorophyll. The same metabolite fed to the worm Caenorhabditis elegans leads to increase in ATP synthesis upon light exposure, along with an increase in life span. We further demonstrate the same potential to convert light into energy exists in mammals, as chlorophyll metabolites accumulate in mice, rats and swine when fed a chlorophyll-rich diet. Results suggest chlorophyll type molecules modulate mitochondrial ATP by catalyzing the reduction of coenzyme Q, a slow step in mitochondrial ATP synthesis. We propose that through consumption of plant chlorophyll pigments, animals, too, are able to derive energy directly from sunlight.

Fascinating, an ancient process we have kept from the time when we were one species?